When people get stuck in their job or personal life, the common response is to either work harder or shrug and accept that "that's just the way things are." My guest today has a much better solution to getting moving and making progress again. Dan Heath is a bestselling author whose latest book is Reset: How to Change What's Not Working . Today on the show, Dan shares how to escape from ineffective systems and the inertia of continuing to do things the way they've always been done by pressing on...
Jan 21, 2025•51 min•Transcript available on Metacast Think about a time you've had to speak in front of others maybe during a work presentation, a wedding toast, or even on a first date. Did you struggle with using too many filler words, such as "um" and "like," talk too fast, or awkwardly ramble? Most of us try to fix these saboteurs of speech by giving ourselves mental mantras: "Slow down"; "Think about what you want to say." But my guest would say that becoming a more engaging and effective speaker comes down to realizing that it's a very physi...
Jan 14, 2025•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast I first read Man's Search for Meaning by the neurologist, psychologist, and philosopher Viktor Frankl in high school, and I have re-read it several times since. It's one of the books that's had the biggest impact on my life, so it was a real treat to speak with Alexander Vesely, Frankl's grandson, about his grandfather's ideas and legacy. Today on the show, I talk to Alexander, who is a documentarian, and like his grandfather, a psychotherapist, about Frankl's life, his development of logotherap...
Jan 07, 2025•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast Think about your habits, the things you do automatically without much thought from brushing your teeth in the morning to scrolling social media before bed. Theres a lot going on with these behaviors. On one level, theyre just routines and actions wired into our brains through repetition. But theres also more to it than that. Our habits shape who we are, influence our health and happiness, and determine much of our success in life. Theres a reason changing habits is one of the most powerful ways ...
Dec 30, 2024•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast Note: This is a rebroadcast. Most everyone wants to live a good, meaningful life, though we dont always know what that means and how to do it. Plenty of modern self-improvement programs claim to point people in the right direction, but many of the best answers were already offered more than two thousand years ago. My guests have gleaned the cream of this orienting, ancient-yet-evergreen advice from historys philosophers and shared it in their new book, The Good Life Method: Reasoning Through the...
Dec 25, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Transcript available on Metacast Think of all the texts, emails, and social media posts you're inundated with each day. Sometimes you read them, and sometimes you swipe them away, telling yourself, perhaps not so honestly, that you'll revisit them later. If you're the sender of such missives and memos or the creator of content, you hope the recipient has the first response, that, instead of deep-sixing your message, they take the time to engage and take action on it. How do you increase the odds of that happening? Rather than j...
Dec 23, 2024•48 min•Transcript available on Metacast What if there was one piece of fitness equipment that was affordable, didnt take up much space, could get you both strong and flexible, and was fun to use? While that might sound too good to be true, my guest, Pat Flynn, would say you can find all those benefits in the old-school kettlebell. Pat, whos the author of Strong ON!: 101 Minimalist Kettlebell Workouts to Blast Fat, Build Muscle, and Boost Flexibilityin 20 Minutes or Less , calls kettlebells the Swiss Army knife of workout tools and the...
Dec 18, 2024•51 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Roman caesars were the rulers of the Roman Empire, beginning in 27 BC with Julius Caesars heir Augustus, from whom subsequent caesars took their name, and lasting until around the fall of the Western Empire in 476 AD. The caesars transitioned the Roman Republic to autocratic rule, consolidating vast territories under centralized authority and shaping Western governance, law, and culture. Their reign marked one of history's most influential periods, laying the groundwork for modern empires an...
Dec 16, 2024•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast When people think about winter, they often focus on the negatives: the cold, the dark, and the seasonal depression the season can bring. But my guest today questions whether winter really has to be so miserable and says that by changing our mindset, we can actually learn to enjoy and even thrive during this season. Kari Leibowitz is a psychologist and the author of How to Winter: Harness Your Mindset to Thrive on Cold, Dark, or Difficult Days . She spent a year at the northernmost university in ...
Dec 11, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Transcript available on Metacast Feeling overwhelmed by an endless to-do list? Like you're constantly putting out fires but never getting ahead? You're not alone. Many people today feel like they're drowning in urgency filling every minute with tasks that feel critical in the moment but may not truly matter in the long run. Here to help us understand how to escape this cycle is Matt Reynolds, a strength coach, business owner, and the author of Undoing Urgency: How to Focus on What Matters Most . Today on the show, Matt explains...
Dec 09, 2024•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sports gambling has exploded in America. You can't watch a game today without being bombarded by ads from betting companies, often co-branded with the major sports leagues themselves. It's a dramatic shift from just seven years ago, when these same leagues were unified in their opposition to legalized sports betting. Michael Lewis, the bestselling author of Moneyball , The Big Short , and The Blind Side , has been exploring this transformation in the latest season of his podcast Against the Rule...
Dec 04, 2024•44 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Industrial Revolution changed the nature of work, so that many people labored in factories, continuously performing the same task, at the same pace, for the duration of their shift. Two centuries on, even though most folks have moved from working with their hands to working with their heads and from manufacturing set outputs to solving complex problems, generating creative ideas, and processing information, we still tend to work as if we're manning an assembly line. My guest says that being ...
Dec 02, 2024•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast In an age where a lot of formalizeddecorumhas vanished, the holidays are still a time with rules, traditions, and unspoken expectations. It's also a time of heightened social interactions and increased opportunitiesto demonstrate warmth, hospitality, and all-around gentlemanly politeness. Here to help us navigate the many scenarios for practicing good etiquette that the holidays present is Thomas Farley, aka Mr. Manners. Today on the show, Thomas shares the neglectedaspects of flying etiquette, ...
Nov 27, 2024•54 min•Transcript available on Metacast Many people think becoming wealthy is all about having the right job, inheritance, or just lucky breaks. And those things can certainly give you a leg up. But according to my guest, the biggest key to building wealth is your mindset, as research shows that even high earners can stay broke forever if theyre trapped in poor thinking patterns, while others can build lasting wealth on modest incomes by developing the right mental approach. Dr. Brad Klontz is a financial psychologist, wealth manager,...
Nov 25, 2024•40 min•Transcript available on Metacast Endurance activities, like distance running, have existed since ancient times. But humans' relationship to those pursuits has changed, according to time and place. In the West, we've currently turned endurance sports into a science tracking every metric and chasing personal records through sophisticated technology and personalized training plans. But as my guest, who's spent years studying the running cultures in different societies, knows well, this modern, individualized, data-driven approach ...
Nov 20, 2024•51 min•Transcript available on Metacast These days, you hear more and more about parents and adult children being estranged from each other. Some individuals have even decided to go "no contact" with their parents; they don't want anything to do with their mom and/or dad at all. To understand what's behind this phenomenon, today I talk to Joshua Coleman, a psychologist who's spent 40 years counseling families and the author of Rules of Estrangement: Why Adult Children Cut Ties and How to Heal the Conflict . Joshua goes beyond the typi...
Nov 18, 2024•56 min•Transcript available on Metacast Think about a hot loaf of bread fresh out of the oven. There's a lot going on with that loaf. On one level, it's a literal food that's been created through chemical processes. A delicious your mouth might be watering right now form of sustenance. But there's also more to it than that. There's something about bread, the so-called staff of life, that's different from other foods and resonates on a deeper level. There's a reason bread has been a rich symbol throughout times and cultures and figures...
Nov 13, 2024•1 hr 4 min•Transcript available on Metacast Its not uncommon for former law enforcement officers and intelligence agents to write self-help books where they share how the lessons they learned in their professional careers can apply to people in any walk of life. What is rare is for one of these officers-turned-authors to publicly prove they know what theyre talking about and that their tips work, as Derrick Levasseur did by winning the reality show Big Brother . Derrick is a former undercover detective, current private investigator, and t...
Nov 11, 2024•47 min•Transcript available on Metacast When it comes to weight management and all-around good metabolic health, we most often think about what to eat. But my guest would say that it's also crucial to think about when to eat, Emily Manoogian is a chronobiologist and clinical researcher at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. Today on the show, Emily shares how to create an optimal schedule for a healthy metabolism by aligning your eating schedule with your circadian rhythm. She explains when to start eating after waking, when to...
Nov 06, 2024•41 min•Transcript available on Metacast In 18th century America, this book was second in popularity only to the Bible. It was a favorite of many thinkers and leaders throughout history, including Emerson, Napoleon, Machiavelli, Nietzsche, and even President Truman. Yet, you probably haven't read it. It's Plutarch's Parallel Lives . If you're not familiar with Plutarch's Lives , you're in for a treat, as today's episode offers a great intro. My guest, Alex Petkas, found that even though he's a former classicist and professor, Plutarch'...
Nov 04, 2024•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast This episode starts off a little differently than others with a short quiz, something called the Brief Sensation-Seeking Scale, which will tell you whether you're what psychologists call a high sensation-seeker or a low sensation-seeker. Read the following eight statements, and then pick a number from 1 to 5 that corresponds to your level of agreement, where 1 is "Not at all like me," 2 is "Not like me," 3 is "Unsure or both like and not like me," 4 is "Like me," and 5 is "Very much like me." I ...
Oct 30, 2024•32 min•Transcript available on Metacast Nothing takes the taste out of peanut butter quite like unrequited love, Charlie Brown once said. Indeed, being spurned by one's crush, or, for that matter, by a friend or potential employer, not only ruins the taste of one's favorite sandwich spread, but causes great psychological distress and even physical pain. Here to walk us through one of life's worst feelings is Mark Leary, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke University, and the editor of Interpersonal Rejection . Today on ...
Oct 28, 2024•40 min•Transcript available on Metacast Note: This is a rebroadcast. Nietzsche's maxim, "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger," isn't just a sound philosophical principle. It's also a certifiable physiological phenomenon; toxins and stressors that could be deadly in large doses, actually improve health and resilience in smaller, intermittent ones. The ironic thing, my guest points out, is that it's the fact that we're not getting enough of this sublethal stress these days that's really doing us in. Paul Taylor is a former British ...
Oct 23, 2024•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast In creating the Jack Reacher character, Lee Child launched a series of books that now boast 100 million copies in print and have been turned into movies and a popular Amazon streaming series. Today on the show, I talk to Lee about what makes Reacher so compelling and much more. We first discuss how Lee didn't get started with writing until he was almost forty, and what prompted him to change careers. We then unpack the Reacher character, discussing the ancient, archetypal roots of this vigilante...
Oct 21, 2024•48 min•Transcript available on Metacast Money can't buy happiness. It sounds good as a bumper sticker platitude. But the truth is, money can buy happiness. At least sometimes. In certain circumstances. If we view it and use it in the right ways. Here to unpack the conditions under which money can buy happiness and facilitate our flourishing is Dr. Daniel Crosby, a psychologist and behavioral finance expert and the author of The Soul of Wealth: 50 Reflections on Money and Meaning . Today on the show, Daniel shares the minimum income le...
Oct 16, 2024•48 min•Transcript available on Metacast Are leaders born or made? Judging by the 50 billion dollar leadership development industry, the answer is definitely the latter. From schools to workplaces, everyone is seen as a potential leader and expected to become one by undergoing leadership training. My guest questions the assumptions underlying this phenomenon, which he calls "the leadership industrial complex," and says that the cult of leadership, and its idea that everyone can and should become a leader, can create burnout and unhappi...
Oct 14, 2024•35 min•Transcript available on Metacast When people think about living more fully and making better use of their time, they typically think of finding some new organizational system they can structure their lives with. Oliver Burkeman says that what you really need instead are perspective shifts small, sustainable changes in how you view and approach your day-to-day life. He provides those mindset shifts in his new book, Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts . And we talk about s...
Oct 09, 2024•52 min•Transcript available on Metacast We often think of the difference between a boy and a man as a matter of age. But Brian Tome says that there can be 15-year-old men and 45-year-old boys, and that the real difference maker in being grown up isn't a matter of the number of years you accumulate but the qualities, behaviors, and mindset you possess. Brian is a pastor and the author of The Five Marks of a Man . Today on the show, Brian unpacks what he thinks are the marks of mature manhood. We talk about the need to have a vision and...
Oct 07, 2024•51 min•Transcript available on Metacast Imagination is the ability to form mental images and concepts that don't exist or havent happened yet, think outside of current realities, and form connections between existing ideas to create something new and original. If the number of movie sequels and the outsized popularity of music made decades ago is any measure, our current age is suffering from a deficit in imagination. And indeed, tests show that creativity, which takes the possibilities generated in the mind and produces something wit...
Oct 02, 2024•43 min•Transcript available on Metacast In an age that doesn't think too much about history, you might be forgiven for thinking that a culture of exercise only emerged in the 20th century. But the idea of purposefully exercising to change one's body what folks used to call "physical culture" likely goes back to the very beginnings of time. Here to unpack the origins, evolution, and future of fitness is Dr. Conor Heffernan, a Lecturer in the Sociology of Sport at Ulster University and the author of The History of Physical Culture . Tod...
Sep 30, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
